People v. Steven S.

Opinion

EHRENFREUND, J.* After a San Diego Juvenile Court referee found Steven S. in violation of Penal Code section 245, subdivision (a), assault with a deadly weapon, and committed him to the California Youth Authority, Steven’s counsel sought to present new evidence on identification. The judge treated the request as a motion for new trial and refused to hear it on grounds the juvenile court lacks authority to grant such a motion. In these two consolidated appeals, Steven’s only contention is the motion should have been treated as coming under Welfare and Institutions Code sections 7751 and 7782 providing for a hearing to change or set [606]aside a juvenile court order on the basis of new evidence and that he was denied his right to such a hearing.

The facts presented at the jurisdictional hearing are relevant in considering the significance of the offered new evidence: The victim, Egelhoff, and a friend, Reid, were in Egelhoff’s van near the Oceanside pier. A crowd started pounding on the van. Reid hopped out and about five persons grabbed him. When Egelhoff got out of the van, he was also grabbed and attacked by five or six others. The young man who grabbed Egelhoff, held him in a headlock and said: “Give me my knife. I got to stab this one too.” He stabbed Egelhoff who fell to the ground. As he was getting up, the young man told Egelhoff to get out of there or he would kill him. Egelhoff identified Steven as the person who stabbed him and made the statements. The court used both statements in identifying Steven as the assailant and in determining the degree of the crime.

The new évidence which Steven’s counsel sought to introduce was statements made by Egelhoff while testifying in the Oceanside Municipal Court after the jurisdictional hearing. Counsel wanted to show that a man named Rosales had made the second statement Egelhoff had accused Steven of making, and further that Rosales was the only person Egelhoff could recall in the area when the statement was made. Counsel offered this testimony as new evidence which cast doubt on Egelhoff’s identification of Steven. She titled her request a notice of appeal, motion for new trial and a request to stay judgment. The last paragraph of her written motion stated: “Defendant minor Steven S. also prays the above-entitled court for an Order Staying Execution of Judgment pending his appeal and his new trial, or in the alternative an order modifying or setting aside the order already entered in the matter. This last request is made pursuant to the above entitled Court’s powers under Sections 775, 778 and Section 800 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code.” (Italics added.) The motion included excerpts from Egelhoff’s sworn testimony in the